Dawn smiled, “Sounds fair. Now hand me the little stone.”
Llewellyn beamed as he passed out the two glowing stones.
“Okay, it knows my name,” commented Lynn immediately. “That is four flavors of weird.”
Dawn’s mind flared as she touched the stone. She could feel it rummage through her brain in a very impersonal way. With gritted teeth she passed it back to Llewellyn, “That. That was creepy.”
Llewellyn looked disappointed, “That’s it?”
“Growl at it, Llewellyn,” beamed Lynn. “Growl a location to it…”
Llewellyn held the stone out in his hand and growled. Both Dawn and Lynn recoiled as the sound hit their brain before it hit their ears. As the sound vanished, so did Llewellyn.
“Dad!” screamed Dawn. Both girls quickly spun around in panic.
“I’m fine!” came his voice from the front hall.
Dawn and Lynn raced to the front of the Citadel just in time to watch Llewellyn walk through the gate from Blackhawk River.
“That was fantastic! It took me straight to the other portal! Good call, Lynn!” He frowned as he looked down at the stone. It wasn’t glowing. “Well, that is no fun. It isn’t glowing anymore.”
“Is it broken?” asked Dawn, more worried about Llewellyn’s ‘pretty toy’ than about the stone in itself.
“History books say it took a while for them to recharge. It was a short distance, so I had hoped it would be quick. I guess not!” Llewellyn beamed as he looked at the girls. “Okay, let’s go out front and try the other!”
“Someone is giddy,” mused Lynn.
“You should have seen him at three in the morning. Kid with a new toy,” joked Dawn as they walked out front.
“Dawn, what is the name of this Citadel,” Llewellyn asked suddenly.
“It has a name?”
“When you touched a portal, it said your name. Did the Citadel not reply?”
“Well, I remember ‘Llewellyn’ but I thought that was in reference to you.”
“Eh, it’s a common enough name. Dawn, take the stone and call the Citadel’s name.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously! I have a theory,” replied Llewellyn with eyes wide like a kid in a candy store.
Dawn took a hold of the stone again. She was ready for it this time, but it was still creepy. She tried to fight through the unpleasant feeling and focused instead on the Citadel. As she did, she squirmed in discomfort. She could feel the stone pulling at her until she finally realized what was causing the discomfort. She quickly undid the back of her dress and, with a relief of pain she didn’t know she had, winked her wings into being. The stone all but smiled at her. Instead of the feelings of discomfort it was radiant and supportive, she felt stronger and happier just holding it! With a happy heart, she tried again. She concentrated on the Citadel, calling it out by name and she felt the stone start to throb in her hand. She placed it on the ground and stood back. She could still feel it and she concentrated further. She relaxed her breathing as if it was a fighting exercise and slowly spread her wings. As her wings lifted and spread, a blue spiral erupted from the gate stone and grew and grew. With a song in her heart and her wings at full extension, the portal stabilized floating there in space.
“It just wanted me to be ‘me.’” She laughed, “And I guess ‘me’ includes the wings.”
“No discomfort this time?” asked Llewellyn.
“No. Not once I invoked my wings. Far from it. It was comforting and happy. Very strange, but fun.”
“Um, guys. Is that us in the distance?” asked Lynn as she pointed at the image in the portal.
Llewellyn smiled as he looked at image, “Yep, the back blank wall. It has opened. Everyone wave at yourself!”
Dawn laughed at her father’s antics. He was definitely a kid.
“Be right back!” smiled Llewellyn as he stepped through the threshold. He seamlessly passed through the wormhole and walked at the far side, the interior of the barbican. He took the ‘long’ way back as he walked the halls back to the pair of astonished girls. “Okay, that is enough fun for the day! We’ll try more of this later. Off to the dress store we go! How many do you want?”
Dawn and Lynn laughed.
“Well, if you are feeling generous,” mused Dawn.
“Whatever you want girls, seriously…,” beamed Llewellyn.
Dawn almost felt guilty, like she was abusing her father’s obvious giddiness. Then she remembered being awakened at three in the morning and the guilt faded away. “One each is fine. But they have to be nice!”
Chapter 20
“Tobias,” began Llewellyn, “Gavin is very fast and very skilled for his size and age. He has also had the advantage of seeing you fight a lot. He knows what type of patterns and rhythms you tend to get into. Those patterns offer you speed of muscle memory but also set you up for predictability. Be aware.”
Dawn squirmed nervously on her perch by the side of the practice field. It was another day of Live Steel work for the older boys and it looked like it was going to get serious. While she knew Gavin couldn’t get seriously physically hurt, she knew that Live Steel practice could be excruciatingly painful.
“Don’t worry,” comforted Lynn as she tried to burp Lily. “Gavin knows what he is doing.”
“Oh, I do hope so,” replied Dawn.
“Gavin,” continued Llewellyn, “Tobias is tall, very strong and has been doing this for two years more than you. He has taken full power body shots and shaken off the pain in less than thirty seconds, so you are not going to be able to intimidate him in any way. He has seen you mix weapon types in rapid succession, so he is not easily going to be caught off guard by that.” He took a deep breath and addressed them both, “This is practice. Your blades know that and I know that. Someone is going to be in a lot of pain in the next 5 minutes―that is a simple fact of practice at this level. You are here to learn, and the one thing I want to stress to both of you today is to think―concentrate!―on what you want the result of a strike to be. Don’t worry about the how, it is the what. Are both of you ready?”
Tobias gave a short nod and Gavin did likewise.
“I think I want to crawl down a hole and hide,” murmured Dawn.
“Don’t you dare! If he wins, he will want you to have seen it. If he doesn’t, he’ll really, really want to have a friendly face around.”
Dawn had to agree with Lynn, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.
“The field is yours, gentlemen!” announced Llewellyn.
The two just stared at each other for almost a minute, until Gavin suddenly cracked a smile and laughed. With that Tobias winked in a great sword and charged Gavin. As he started his swing the blade metamorphosed into a great long, and quite sinister looking, pole ax. Gavin responded at the last second with a pair of swords, longer straight sword in his right hand, shorter but heavier sword in his left, and plowed the latter down on the end of Tobias’s weapon trying to send it into the earth while attacking his exposed arm with the right. Tobias brilliantly split his weapon into two similar swords expertly parrying both. The flurry began once again as both sides danced across the field sending a vast arsenal of weapons winking in and out of existence in a never-ending fireworks display of blue sparks.
Endurance. Thought Dawn. Does Gavin have the endurance? Tobias is just going to wear him down.
The pair separated and slowly started to circle each other. Gavin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Tobias didn’t fall for the opening, so Gavin kept his eyes shut and took another deep breath as his swords winked out and were gone.
Dawn’s hair stood on end. She knew there was getting ready to be a tremendous exchange and the anticipation was gnawing at her.
Gavin opened his eyes and then charged Tobias empty handed. Tobias obliged Gavin and counter-charged with two swords at the ready. Just as they closed, Tobias swung high with one sword and thrust to the middle with the off hand. Gavin ducked and turned into a sp
in where he slapped his bare hand against the flat of the thrusted blade and continued the spin, putting his elbow in Tobias’ ribs. As the larger boy recoiled from the pain, Gavin produced a pair of short swords and made for a body blow. To most everyone’s surprise, Tobias was able to rake both of Gavin’s swords out of line with his own sword as his spun clear of his shorter opponent.
“That didn’t work,” mumbled Dawn.
“But it almost did,” countered the still eager Lynn.
Gavin’s fur rippled briefly and then went black. Not an almost black like previous times, but a solid even black from tip to toe. He looked up at Tobias and narrowed his eyes into slits, looking like a feral cat.
Dawn broke into a wild grin; she had seen that same expression on her father when the kartivalds had attacked, “Gavin has him. Game, set, match!”
Lynn looked up with some confusion at the sudden change in heart, “Um?”
A blue flash raked across the ground and Gavin started his charge. Blue flash but no real sign of a blade!
“Freeze!” yelled Llewellyn with such force that several startled spectators fell over. He raced to put himself between the two boys. Fortunately both heard and understood him through the brain fog of combat and held their arms wide and open as they dismissed their weapons. Llewellyn let out a sigh of relief when it was clear both had stood down. “Gavin, off the field. We need to talk. Tobias, take a break. We’ll find someone else for you to spar with.”
Both parties looked confused but obeyed without question.
Dawn laughed and pointed, “Look at the flowers!” Indeed there were two long races of tall flowers that now graced the field where Gavin’s phantom swords had swept. She jumped off her perch and ran over and embraced a very confused Gavin. “That was fantastic!”
“But I didn’t get a chance to close,” he protested very confused.
“Look at what you did to the field! Look at the flowers!”
Gavin blinked and stared a bit. The flowers were nothing special to look at, but they were of full height and bloom right in the middle of the field where they had been practicing. A field that was, until very recently, quite thoroughly trampled. “I did that?”
Llewellyn clasped Gavin on the shoulder, “Indeed you did. If I hadn’t stopped you, you would have made a serious mess of the field and possibly those houses there on the edge.”
Dawn was positively giddy, “That was beyond fantastic!”
Gavin was no more enlightened than he was 30 seconds earlier. “Huh?”
“When you started to close, what weapons did you have in your hands?” asked Llewellyn.
“I don’t recall. I wasn’t paying attention; all I was thinking about was where they were going rather than how they were shaped.”
“Excellent! That is exactly how it should be. I think you are done with practice here. From now on it is private practice or not at all. I’m serious. No pick up fights.”
Gavin nodded, happy for the praise but still a bit overwhelmed. “Yes, sir. No pick up fights.”
“Gee, I guess that means you will be spending more time over at my house,” teased Dawn.
Gavin brightened at that, “Like I needed an excuse. Now it’s an order!”
The pair had a quick laugh.
Dawn wiggled her nose excitedly as she hugged Gavin again, “Oh, I did like how you were able to finally do a true black. That was quite flattering.”
Gavin shrugged and smiled, “I didn’t know I had it in me. I just did it.”
“You and your baby Forest Wall,” Dawn giggled. She stole a glance at Llewellyn, “So does that make him number nineteen?”
Llewellyn smiled broadly back, “Yes, I do think we found another High Silver.”
Chapter 21
“Hey, Dawn,” began the twins, in unison, “We have good news and bad news from in town.”
Dawn looked up from her lunch, “Okay, I’ll bite. What is the good news?”
“Your book on the Altshea language, Kelf, came in and apparently it was actually fairly inexpensive.”
“Kelef,” Dawn cringed at the mispronunciation, unclear if it was intentional or not. This was the twins after all. “That came in very quickly! And the bad news?”
“We bumped into Lynn; she said Gavin has gone all super mopey and you may want to poke him with a stick.”
“Did she actually advocate poking him with a stick?” she asked.
The twins just giggled and broke eye contact, “In a manner of speaking.”
“A teenager getting all mopey,” commented Maria, “who would have thought?” She paused and waited for a dirty look from Dawn. “And before you ask, yes, you may go in town this afternoon to ‘poke him with a stick’ providing you pick up your book on the return.”
“Thank you, Maria. I’m just a little concerned about Gavin. I’ve never heard him get out of sorts. In fact he always seems to be the one pulling me up.”
“He is probably just stressed about something or other. Now is the time for you to return the favor and help him,” replied Maria.
“Gladly!”
“I may be part of the problem; I have been pushing him very hard in practice,” offered Llewellyn. “He is taking it all very seriously, but he is just fifteen. I’m just trying to make sure he doesn’t end up making the same mistakes I made.”
“He’s a tough one; he probably just needs a good friend right now,” countered Maria. “Dawn, as soon as you finish your plate, you may head out. Just don’t forget your book!”
Dawn paused as she sized up Gavin’s house; she had been by it a few times but had never gone in, and she had only met his Second Mother. The house was a three story timber frame with rock for the first floor. It was an older house, but it was very well maintained and had quite a bit of charm to it.
“Just a second,” came the reply as she pulled the chain for the doorbell. A sharply dressed lady with a beautiful coat like a lynx answered the door. Dawn could see where Gavin got his coat! “Oh, yes, you must be Dawn. Do come in. Gavin has talked all about you.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Rachelwood,” she said politely, not knowing if this was First or Third Mother.
She stepped inside to a well-lit and highly decorated house. Decorative floral painting covered most all of the woodwork and brought a lot of color and variety to the house.
“Oh! Very pretty! That is rosemaling, yes?” asked Dawn.
“Yes, indeed!” The lady responded before calling up stairs, “Fiona, is your brother available?”
“No, Fourth Mother. He is still on the roof,” came the reply from upstairs.
“On the roof?” asked Dawn.
“Yes,” Mrs. Rachelwood replied. “When he wants to be alone but not out in the woods, he tends to go up there.”
“Is there an easy way to get up there?”
She laughed, “No. That is kind of why he likes it up there.”
“Is it okay if I go see him?”
“Certainly! I think he could use the company. Shall I try and page him?”
“No, ma’am. I’ll just go up.”
Dawn pumped her wings hard as she touched down on the roof. Landing on a slope was a bit tricky, but fortunately it wasn’t all that steep. She winked her wings out in a blue flash as she padded over the top of the rise. There was Gavin, sprawled on top of a dormer looking rather blue.
“Would you like some company or should I fly off?”
Gavin turned and with sudden recognition sat upright, “Dawn! How did you get up here? You should have had my sister come page me.”
“Well, you seemed like you wanted to hang out here so I figured I’d just join you. Unless I’m interrupting?”
“No! Please, have a seat.”
She cocked her head, “Can I talk you into helping me with the laces on my dress right quick?”
“Certainly!” Gavin bolted over to her and quickly laced the back of her dress closed.
“So, what brings you out to the roof? It’s a nice view, but kinda aw
kward,” said Dawn.
“I don’t know,” sighed Gavin. “Just trying to find a quiet spot.”
“So… what is bothering you? Is it something I did?” prodded Dawn.
“Oh heavens, no!” gushed Gavin. “You are the most wonderful thing in the world.”
Dawn flushed at the compliment, “Then what has you so blue?”
“Who says I’m blue?”
“Um, the twins, Lynn, your mother, sister and, oh yeah, you looked half-baked sprawled across the roof when I got up here.”
“Well, I guess the jury is in then,” replied Gavin. “I don’t know. So much is going on. So many things are so strange.”
Dawn sat on the roof and sprawled gracefully, “Spill it, silly boy. I’m not leaving until you do.”
Gavin laughed, “And you would be hard to hide from too, I would imagine.” He stared at the sky as he continued, “I don’t know. Part of it is your Father, part of it is my parents, Lynn, just about everything.”
“Okay, let’s start with Lynn. What is wrong with her?”
“Nothing really. That is just the problem. I’m beginning to think I like her a little too much. She is a really nice girl and all and she just seems to be growing on me. I don’t know what to do; I don’t want her to get between us just because I’m an idiot. ”
Dawn laughed, “You silly boy… she likes you a lot too! What’s wrong with that? Do you like me any less than you did before?”
“Heavens no! I like you more and more every day.”
“Five to ten years from now, do you think we will still be seeing each other?”
Gavin nervously stared at the ground far below, “Oh, I do hope so. We are kinda young and all, but I do really hope so.”
“So you have silly dreams about us being married with a cottage in the woods?”
Gavin all but faded out of view, much like Llewellyn had in the field that time. “Yes,” he meekly replied.
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